Jim Getty Carries Forth Lincoln's Legacy

[Liz Rosenthal]

It is definitely a commonly held belief that Cape May County NJ is below the Mason-Dixon line. I think I first heard this when my husband and I made our initial visit to Cape May City (the Victorian capital of America) over 25 years ago and took a tour. And I've heard it a lot since then.

Cape May County makes up the peninsula at the botton of NJ that sort of mimics Florida's own peninsula, but is a lot tinier. Technically, it's part of the "Jersey Shore," although not the part that one would associate with the TV program of the same name. Noo Yawkas don't tend to travel that far South. Since our first visit to Cape May City, with a couple of exceptions, we've gone there at least once a year. I highly recommend visiting Cape May City and its environs; it's one of NJ's best-kept secrets and is a hot spot for migrating birds, especially in the fall (and in September it's impossible to avoid the migrating monarch butterflies!). Again, Cape May City has kept the Victorian identity it first developed... during the Victorian period... and is a beautiful place any time of year.

As for the cultural and political differences between northern NJ and southern NJ, those are still very much alive. Large chunks of southern NJ are very rural. Politically, except for some limited Democratic enclaves just across the Delaware from Philly, it's fairly conservative. Democrats and liberals are more concentrated in the northern half of the state, as is most of the population of NJ.

We live in southern NJ, although not deep southern NJ. People would be amazed at how far down NJ actually goes!

Getting back to Abe Lincoln, I understand that, while in Trenton NJ speaking before the assembled state legislators, he referred to Washington's crossing of the Delaware as being a fond memory of his boyhood reading. I work in Trenton, but nothing as exciting as Lincoln's stop here has probably happened since then!